Stone Artifacts Older than the Pyramids

In collaboration with the Archaeological Society of British Columbia and the Squamish Nation, we invited a group of archaeologists to catalogue, photograph and analyze the collection of over 200 stone artifacts that have been curated here at the SCMA. We invited the public to come and watch them at work and ask questions. Over the course of two days, we had close to 40 people come by, some with artifacts of their own that they wanted to have looked at. Here are some pictures from our Artifact Analysis event - public archaeology in action...




Jim Pound referencing "Stone, Bone, Antler & Shell" by Hilary Stewart



Archaeologists hard at work. Back to Front: Sarah Kavanagh, Robyn Ewing, Jennifer Lewis, Jim Pound.



Rudy Reimer speaking with a museum visitor.

Robyn Ewing, Jennifer Lewis, & Jim Pound



Sean Alward



Sarah Kavahagh photographing a hammerstone.

Jim Pound speaking with museum visitors.

Public Archaeology in action!

The work they are doing will be used to enhance our own database as well as to create a shared database that will go up on the Reciprocal Research Network an online research environment that provides access to First Nations items from the Northwest Coast and British Columbia. It allows you to search through items from many institutions across the world, all from the same convenient interface. For more information, go to http://www.rrnpilot.org/login, Pretty exciting to be a part of this! Local reporter Christine Wood came by and spoke with me and Rudy. Here's the article that appeared in today's Coast Reporter:

"HISTORY RESTORED, RECALLED IN GIBSONS"

http://www.coastreporter.net/article/20101105/SECHELT0604/311059992/history-restored-recalled-in-gibsons

Christine Wood/Contributing Writer

There are artifacts older than the pyramids resting at the Sunshine Coast Museum and Archives in Gibsons.


Recently, a group of professional archaeologists came to the museum to analyze the First Nations wood, bead, shell and stone artifacts housed there, effectively dating some pieces to a period 5,000 years ago.


“To put that into context, the pyramids were built about 3,500 years ago, so we have pieces here that are the same age or older,” said Rudy Reimer, president of the Archaeological Society of B.C., adding that most of the artifacts are 2,000 to 3,000 years old, but some date back 4,000 to 5,000 years.


While some of the artifacts have been in the possession of the museum since 1963, the collection had not been thoroughly analyzed by an archaeologist.


“The collection has been developed over decades, and we have catalogued it, but we don’t have any expertise to properly analyze it,” said museum curator Kimiko Hawkes.


Hawkes met with Reimer while he was visiting with a Squamish Nation delegation, and she sought his expertise. Reimer was excited at the prospect of uncovering more First Nations artifacts, and he decided to bring a team to the museum to help shed some light on the history housed there. Last weekend the museum was a buzz of activity with archaeologists examining artifacts, photographing them and poring over reference materials to determine dates, uses and origins of the articles.


While Reimer’s team worked, the public was invited to come and view their efforts. More than 40 people took the time to see what was happening, and some even brought in artifacts of their own for identification.


Reimer was happy to see the community come out, noting archaeologists have been working behind closed doors for many years, not sharing their discoveries with the general public.


“We’ve kind of gotten away from our original mandate, which was to blend the interests of all people and do archaeology in public. We want to involve the community and create awareness about the fact that there are thousands of years of history here,” Reimer said.


Some of the discoveries in Gibsons included an ancient warrior’s club, pieces that show evidence of fishing and hunting technology and an unusual carving found on Mount Elphinstone that is made of a natural concrete and shell.


Some of the pieces will be studied further with the use of X-ray fluorescents, a non-destructive technology that shows where stone used in an artifact came from.


“Basically we take a chemical fingerprint and we can tie that chemical fingerprint back to the source, or where it came from,” Reimer said.


Hawkes said the museum learned a lot from Reimer’s recent visit, and they are inviting him back again in the fall to continue his work.


In the meantime, Reimer encourages anyone in the community who thinks they may have found an artifact to contact the B.C. Archaeology Branch at 1-250-953-3334.


“Some people have these things sitting in their living rooms, and I would encourage them to bring them in and have them looked at. There is a broader archeological context that we can put things into, and if we don’t we will lose that knowledge,” he said

The Voices of Women in History

The book launch on Saturday turned out to be a lovely little affair with family, friends and community members coming out to support this recent publication. Four of the women who put "Women of Pender Harbour" together were in attandance and each spoke of their role in the 10 year project. They took turns reading different passages and highlighting some of the interesting women and stories from Pender Harbour. After the talk, the crowd mixed and mingled in the gift shop area over tea, coffee and treats.

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Dorothy Faulkner

Karen Dyck

Aaron and John

Joan

l to r: Kimiko Hawkes, Pat Jobb, Karen Dyck, Dorothy Faulkner & Cathy Jenks

Artifact Analysis

Come and watch archaeologists at work!

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Three separate communities have come together to create a public event that will showcase local First Nations history, archaeology and our local communities on the Sunshine Coast.

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Many ancient artifacts have been curated at the Sunshine Coast Museum but very little information exists around the meaning and function of these items.

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Please come and join us as archaeologists photograph, catalogue and analyze these implements so that they can be developed into an educational exhibit.

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At the Museum

716 Winn Road in Gibsons

Friday and Saturday

October 29th & 30th

from 11 to 4 each day.

"What were these used for?"

"How old are these?", "What are they made of?"



"Who used these?"



Through a collaboration between the Squamish Nation, the Archaeological Society of B.C. and the Sunshine Coast Museum & Archives, we have the rare opportunity for Rudy Reimer and other archaeologists to come to the Museum and work with the stone artifacts in our collection. They will be on hand to answer your questions and explain the process of analysis.

 

Join us for a book launch!

“Women of Pender Harbour: Their Voices, Their History”

by Dorothy Faulkner, Elaine Park, & Cathy Jenks

Saturday, October 23rd, 2010

2:00 pm to 4:00 pm

at the Museum – 716 Winn Road, Gibsons, B.C.

Reading, Q&A, and book signing with authors.

Refreshment will be served.

For more information, contact the Sunshine Coast Museum & Archives at (604) 886-8232

or go to http://www.sunshinecoastmuseum.ca/

The coast of British Columbia is indented by inlets where early logging and fishing families established independent settlements in the wilderness. Women of Pender Harbour: Their Voices, Their History presents part of B.C.’s history through the words of the early women settlers of one of these coastal villages.

Modern Pender Harbour, today a thriving community of 2500 on the Sunshine Coast, northwest of Vancouver, was for much of the twentieth century a place that tested the courage and ingenuity of its women. The book contains life stories of women who laid the foundations of the community, such as Thawquamot Theresa Jeffries, a Shishalh girl sold into marriage to one of the first English settlers; her daughter Mary Ann Rouse, the harbour midwife in the 1920s; her granddaughter Martha Warnock, who fought the government to get a road to school for harbour children.

Women of Pender Harbour: Their Voices, Their History is published by the Pender Harbour Living Heritage Society, a voluntary non-profit group working to preserve the history of the Pender Harbour area. The book began with an idea by members of the Pender Harbour Women’s Connection group to honour the local women pioneers. After nine years of work by volunteers conducting interviews and gathering information and photographs, project leader Dorothy Faulkner, writer Elaine Park and graphics editor Cathy Jenks have woven the recollections of more than 40 pioneer women into a colourful tapestry of remembrance. The historical narrative is augmented by more than 200 heirloom photographs, biographical profiles, a Pender Harbour historical timeline, genealogies of some of the founding families and an endpaper historic map.  An original painting donated by internationally renowned artist Motoko, entitled “Boat Day at Irvines Landing,” graces the jacket cover.

Production of the book was made possible by the donated skills of Howard and Mary White of Harbour Publishing. All proceeds from sales of Women of Pender Harbour: Their Voices, Their History will support preservation of historical records and artifacts in Pender Harbour.

Jean Barman, Professor Emeritus of educational history at the University of British Columbia and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, is the author of several history books including The West Beyond the West, Stanley Park’s Secret, The Remarkable Adventures of Portuguese Joe Silvey and British Columbia: Spirit of the People.  She has made the following comment on the book:

“Women’s lives recounted in their own words are rare indeed. Women of Pender Harbour is a welcome exception, following forty remarkable everyday women across a century and more. These diverse women share their upbringing and first romances, their roles as wives, mothers, and fisherwomen, and their determination to build community. Through these women’s recollections, we glimpse the coastal enclave of Pender Harbour. Once isolated and self-contained, it increasingly appealed to ‘summer people,’ some of them so entranced they became residents. Women of Pender Harbour is an important slice of British Columbia history.”

On Saturday, October 23, 2010, Dorothy Faulkner, Elaine Park and Cathy Jenks will be reading selections, sharing stories, and discussing their research here at the Museum from 2 till 4 pm.  Join us for some lively conversation and refreshments. Copies of the book will be available in the gift shop and admission is by donation.

Community Oral History

This past Saturday, we had a lively group of 17 participants gather at Christenson Village for a workshop with Prof. Helene Demers on the subject of oral history. There is never enough time in the day to cover it all but we touched on the basics and everyone received the revised copy of the Community Oral History Kit created by the Cowichan Valley Museum & Archives. Professor Demers drew from her work over the years to highlight the importance of sensitivity, compassionate listening, and ethics. The participants came from various backgrounds – residents and staff at Christenson, Quest University students, Canada World Youth participants, friends of the Museum, and interested community members; they ranged in age from 20’ish to 80’ish; and there was a nice balance of both men and women. Everyone was engaged, enthusiastic, and willing to share their own stories. By the end of the day, there was a very real sense of a collective group and a wonderful energy that comes from that. Thanks to all the participants, to Professor Helene Demers and to Bruce Devereux and the folks at Christenson Village.

 L to R: Kimiko Hawkes(SCMA), Qaqamba Koyana (Canada World Youth), Prof. Helene Demers (VIU), Selena Boan (Canada World Youth)



Bruce   

Jennifer and Jim

Rebecca, Gordon, and Jeanie

Jennifer

Sandra and John

Joanne and Caroline

Lynn and Maynard

Gordon and Jeanie

Qaqamba

I am in the midst of planning a follow-up recording session here at the museum where folks can familiarize themselves with the equipment, practice their interviewing skills, and record a session or "conversation" with a partner. Participants will receive a copy of their recording to take home. The idea is based on the StoryCorps concept:

“The heart of StoryCorps is the conversation between two people who are important to each other: a son asking his mother about her childhood, an immigrant telling his friend about coming to America, or a couple reminiscing on their 50th wedding anniversary. By helping people to connect, and to talk about the questions that matter, the StoryCorps experience is powerful and sometimes even life-changing.”

Check out http://storycorps.org for more info.

Bruce Devereux and a few others in the community have expressed interest in organizing this event and providing some of the necessary equipment. I hope to have this happen by mid-November so if you’re interested in booking a recording session, would like to help out, or just want some more information, please get in touch.